


Meanwhile, in an alternate universe...

by Daniscats



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-14 01:09:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11772312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daniscats/pseuds/Daniscats
Summary: Maybe in some universe somewhere, Liara is the Spectre and Shepard is the archaeologist.





	Meanwhile, in an alternate universe...

    Katherine Shepard peered closer at the control panel and tried to decipher the prothean writing there. She had managed to get the power on and the elevator working but finding the way to access further into the ruin was something of a challenge. To say that modern-day translations of the prothean language were incomplete at best would be an understatement. It was possible that rather than just incomplete, their knowledge of the prothean alphabet might be completely wrong. Just like their knowledge of everything prothean.

    But she was determined. She only had another month left on this solo expedition to Therum before her return trip home to the University of Cambridge and if she couldn't come up with some evidence to support her theories, it was likely that her already laughable pittance of a grant would not be renewed.

    Not that she could blame the archaeology community for not believing her when she posited that the protheans fell victim to a sudden cataclysmic event that lead to their sudden extinction or even more unbelievable, that they were just the latest in a long line of advanced cultures who faced a similar fate. The evidence was scant but Shepard just knew she was right.

    It didn't help that her father was the top senior Senator to the Systems Alliance at Arcturus for the United North American States or that he was one of the richest men on Earth. Everyone assumed that she only got into the very prestigious archaeology program at Cambridge because he bought her way in. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was furious with her for even applying and believed her career choice was laughable. Why did she want to focus on the past when the future was with the Systems Alliance? He did not understand that ever since First Contact, Shepard had been enthralled with the protheans, builders of the Citadel and the entire Mass Relay system. Who knew what such an advanced civilization could teach them. More importantly, what might their extinction tell humanity about the dangers in the galaxy as humanity took its first leaps into interstellar space?    

    She was lost in her thoughts when the first alarm triggered. Convinced it must be a false alarm, Katherine ignored it and continued working until the second alarm was tripped. She then ran over to the monitors that she had set up to at all the entrances and hallways into the ruins. She wasn't expecting trouble  but there was always the possibility that  raiders would come to the ruins in the hopes of finding any valuable tech that the Protheans might have left behind. Or even anything valuable that the miners who had discovered the ruins, might have left behind.

    Katherine blinked a few times at the images she found on the monitor. A krogan and...was that, could that be, geth?! The geth had not been seen outside the Veil for hundreds of years! But she couldn't be sure. She had seen pictures and vids before but _no_ human being had ever seen one in person before. And why would they come to this God-forsaken planet?

    Katherine grabbed her pistol. She had become adept at its use and had managed to scare off raiders on her solo expeditions a few times before. But this was a krogan. And even if they weren't geth, they were still mechanical beings. Armed mechanical beings. Her pistol would be next to useless. She remembered the console.

    If she were correct, the console had a security feature that would bring up a security field around the tower.  She made her best guess as to the correct buttons to push and in what sequence. She smiled to herself in self-satisfaction as the blue field covered the entrance. A few seconds after that, she felt herself being lifted off the ground.

    "What. the. fuck?", she said to herself. "Seriously?"

    She tried to move her arms or legs but they were immobilized. This was so not a good day. Katherine watched literally helplessly as the krogan and the geth appeared beyond the blue curtain.

    It was many hours later, at least she didn't think a day had passed yet, when Shepard was woken from her doze by voices. They did not sound like the krogan. It also did not sound like the geth, who just chirped or beeped. She wondered vaguely if all geth vocalized in such a manner. Katherine had watched for hours as the krogan threatened her, shot at the curtain, threw rocks at the curtain, ran into the curtain with his head. If Katherine had any luck that day, it was that she apparently had the dumbest krogan in the galaxy out to get her. Because of something about her father? She had no idea what they were talking about or who this Saren was. Her father had never mentioned him but then, of course, she hadn't spoken to her father in years.

    She listened intently as she heard weapons fire and then more voices. The voices got closer. The fact that they were not krogan or geth coupled with the fact that she was completely trapped and would likely die here or worse, be carried off by a dumb krogan and his chirping robots, made her decision for her.

    "Ah, hello." Shepard had to swallow a few times to try to work up some moisture in her mouth before continuing. She was more than a little dehydrated. "Can somebody help me? Please?"

    Katherine watched as three asari came to stand in front of the curtain.

   "Can you hear me out there? I'm trapped! I need help!"

    The lead asari looked at her blankly for a moment. She wore a stern expression and had a prominent scar over her right...eyebrow? Katherine had read about the asari before, of course, but had never seen one in person. This was definitely turning out to be a day of firsts. She knew that they did not have hair but damned if that didn't look like an eyebrow. Finally the tough-looking asari spoke.

    "Katherine Shepard, I presume?"

    "Thank God! I didn't think anyone would come looking for me. Listen. I'm trapped in a prothean security device. I can't move so I need you to get me out of it, okay?"

    The asari looked at her as if she were a bug.

    "Your Father is working with Saren. Whose side are you on?"

    "What? I'm not on anyone's side. I may be John's daughter but I'm nothing like him! Me and the Old Man haven't spoken in years. Just get me out of here! Please!"

    The asari still didn't move or smile.

    "How did you even get stuck in there?"

    "Come on! Does that matter right at this moment? There is a console in here that should release the stasis field that I'm in but you'll need to find a way through the barrier first. You might not know this but there is a krogan and geth here. Yes, I said geth! They have been trying to find a way past the curtain. They want to capture me! You've got to help me!"

    The asari looked at her another moment before her expression softened a little.

    "Don't worry", the asari said confidently. "We'll get you out of there."

    "Thank you. And if you could, please hurry!"

    It was less than twenty minutes later that Katherine heard steps behind her, inside the curtain. She craned her neck to try to see who is was but couldn't really get a good look before she found herself falling to the floor. She somehow managed to use her hands to stop herself before she kissed the dirt. To her relief, when she stood up, she saw the three asari before her and not a krogan or geth. It was then that they felt the first deep shocks jolt them.

    "I don't know what you did but whatever it was, I think it triggered some major seismic activity. Come on, I know another way out of here."

 

 

 

 

    "We can fight or you can give her to us" The dumb krogan said. "Either way, she's coming with us."

    Shepard held her breath. This was it. She was going to be kidnapped by this dumb but deadly-looking krogan and his metal friends. Why would these strangers help her? To her surprise, the asari only looked at the krogan with a small smile on her face before proving her wrong.

    "I believe she will come with us. But thank you for the kind offer."

    And then all hell broke loose. The asari threw a biotic bolt at two of the geth who then floated helplessly up in the air. Brilliant woman that she was, she had not even thought to bring her pistol so she had no choice but to hit the deck , cover her head with her hands and hope that she wasn't killed as the fighting  raged around her.

 

 

 

    Katherine found herself on a strange ship full of asari. There were a couple non-asari on board but mostly, it was a sea of blue faces everywhere she looked. The expressions on those faces ranged from curious to down-right hostile. For the most part, the faces were pleasant by human standards and it was amazing how closely the expressions matched human ones but Shepard still couldn't help but feel like a fish out of water.

    The lead asari quickly  disappeared but she was lead by one of the other asari who had been on Therum to a circular room with chairs around it. The surly asari nodded towards a chair.

    "Sit there. The others will be here shortly."

    The asari turned to leave. Katherine had a pressing matter that just couldn't wait regardless of how tenuous her current circumstances were.

    "Wait! Would it be possible for me to use the facilities?"

    The asari just looked at her. She had taken more than a couple galactic anthropology courses but none of them dealt with these types of cultural differences. Surely, the asari had to evacuate waste just like humans did. She decided to just come out with it and hope that the translators would do the rest.

    "I need to urinate."

   The asari nodded and gestured for her to follow. The bathroom that she was lead to was obviously a communal one and unlike most human female facilities, there was no privacy. There were no stalls. An asari was already in there attending to business. Shepard noticed wryly that apparently, asari did pee much like human women did. Shepard waited until the asari washed her hands at what looked very much like a human sink without trying to look like she was waiting. Once the asari left, she gratefully sat  down with a sigh of relief.

    The water that she washed her face and hands with looked so enticing. She was so thirsty! She considered asking someone for a glass or bottle of water but considering the very uncertain situation she was in, she decided to just stick her head under the faucet and lap up as much as she could instead.

    When she left the bathroom, the same surly asari was waiting for her and she was promptly returned to the same circular room. She was told to wait in the room in a way that made it clear that it was a command and not a request.

 

 

 

    About twenty minutes later, the others were in the room and they were discussing the current situation. To Katherine's surprise, not only was there a krogan aboard, Shepard had hoped never to meet one of those again, but a turian and a quarian as well. A quarian for Christ's sake! For not the first time that day, a surreal feeling washed over her.

    They were looking for something called the 'conduit' because this Saren was looking for it. They had asked Katherine if she had ever heard of it. She told them no but they continued to look at her expectantly, so she started to describe her theories regarding the protheans. The surly asari interrupted her.

    "And you've been studying the protheans for how long?"

    "My whole adult life. Twelve years now."

    "Twelve whole years?" The rude asari laughed out loud and the other asari smiled as well. Even the head asari smiled before quickly dropping it when Katherine looked at her. Surly continued. "I've got undergarments older than that. How old are you anyway?"

    "I'm 29."

    The mean asari laughed again before the head asari gave her a pointed look.

    "That will be enough, Aallea. Katherine is our guest." She then looked at Shepard and continued. "It is just that in our culture, experts study for decades before they are considered experts. Our life spans are much longer those of humans. Please continue."

    "So, anyway, I believe that the protheans faced an extinction event of some sort that suddenly brought their culture to a very abrupt end. "

    This time it was the head asari who interrupted her.

    "It was the reapers. A sentient race of AIs who destroyed all prothean life in the galaxy."

    "The reapers?", Shepard asked incredulously. "I have never heard of these reapers before. How can you possibly know this?"

    "There was a prothean beacon found on one of our colonies. A beacon that Saren managed to access before we got there. It then activated and it interacted with my mind. I saw confused images of the protheans being destroyed by these reapers. I could not make sense of most of it but that come through clearly. I was knocked unconscious."

    Shepard sat forward in her seat.

    "You actually interacted with a prothean beacon?! An active prothean beacon?"

    "Yes. Of course, something happened and it is not active anymore. We could get no more information from it."

    Shepard sat back, considering.

    "I suppose that makes sense. It is thought that the protheans communicated through a type of sensory perception not seen in the galaxy today. It makes sense that a beacon would try to communicate information in that way. But for a non-prothean...are you alright?"

    "It was not a pleasant experience. And much of the information is still jumbled in my brain. But one thing is certain, we need to find this conduit and we need to find it before Saren. Your knowledge of the protheans could be useful. Would you like to remain on-board and lend your expertise?"

    Katherine thought about it for all of thirty seconds. She needed to know everything that this asari found out about the protheans and if this rogue Spectre was looking for her, she did not want to be found.

    "Sure. I'd love to. I just hope I can help."

    "Good. Do you have any military experience? Further combat seems inevitable."

    "Well, I know how to shoot pistols and rifles. My father made sure of that." Shepard noticed the asari was still looking at her. "And I was a Girl Scout."

    The asari raised her eyebrows or whatever those things were.

    "A girl...scout", the asari repeated. If she was curious as to what that was, she decided not to pursue it. "Welcome aboard, Katherine Shepard. I am Spectre Liara T'Soni."

    Shepard rose and shook the Spectre's hand. She had the most beautiful eyes. Her hand was rough but soft at the same time. Shepard was embarrassed when she realized that the others had already started to leave the room and she had continued to hold the blue hand maybe just a little too long.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for the fan fic Challenge but I might continue it later. I find it an intriguing idea. PS Writing, editing and posting a story a day is definitely a challenge! :o


End file.
